When the Malaysia Speed Festival (MSF) was introduced in 2016 one of the categories that captured the imagination of competitors was the Saga Cup. It had the appropriate ingredients and especially with the focus on affordability making it a popular choice for newcomers to go motor racing.
Split into 2 categories Expert (Ron Jeremy) and Novice (Rocco), the latter had one of the biggest starting grid during the inaugural MSF with different winners almost every round and with on-track battles continuing right to the final race of the season. Building on the success of last season the Rocco category this season would be a championship points scoring category and has attracted 34 cars.
During the flat-out Sunday of MSF’s Round 2 the Saga Rocco Cup runners presented very close racing with some even battling it out with the bigger league guys in the expert class. Most of them were highly motivated and has learnt a lot from the short end-of-the-year break to improve their driving and adjusting their cars with proper set-up.
In race 1 Seng Motorsport’s Tan Chaw Wei took the chequered flag after some tough battle with Loco Racing’s Ahmad Faizry. Incredibly the pair finished the race ahead of some of the bigger guys in the Saga Cup. Coming home third was team LOCM driver Syed Rizal.
Meanwhile in race 2, while there was a thrilling battle up front amongst the expert class drivers, the Rocco class also had it’s share of excitements. This time around it was a four-way battle right to the end between Syed Rizal, Ahmad Faizry, One Soul Motorsport’s Mohamad Aliff/Muhamad Shahril and team YC-Yap’s drivers pairing of Foo YC/Ken Yap.
Obviously with the quartet being close to one another the inevitable would happen. While all of them would finish the race in that respective order, there has been some confusion in the results regarding Syed Rizal which is currently being looked into. On the podium, it was Syed Rizal, followed by Ahmad Faizry with Mohamad Aliff/Muhamad Shahril making 3rd.
The Rocco Cup is shaping up to be one fierce championship in the MSF, and revealing some future stars. More will be unfold and fans would surely be looking forward to the next race.